Reser’s Tournament of Champions 2024 Day 2 recap: Newberg claims 3rd consecutive team title, wrestlers from 12 schools win gold
Saturday night at the 22nd annual Reser’s Tournament of Champions didn’t go exactly as Newberg wrestling coach Neil Russo planned.
The rest of the weekend at Hillsboro’s Liberty High School went smoothly, allowing the Tigers to become the first school to win three consecutive TOC titles since Crook County in 2014-16.
Newberg had 11 wrestlers make the podium and finished with 224.5 points, besting runner-up La Grande by 59 points, but only three won their placing match Saturday — including junior Gus Amerson, who won the 150-pound title as the Tigers’ only individual champion.
The Tigers also won the JV team title with six finalists and four champions, which should help them in their quest to reclaim the Class 6A state title next month at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
“That last round was not really indicative of how we competed and wrestled all weekend,” said longtime coach Russo, whose team has won four of the past five TOC titles.
“It’s not a great way to finish, but the kids put themselves in a position to get to these medal rounds and hit the finals, so we’re not going to put a whole lot of stock in it. It’s always good to win here, and we won the JV tournament, too, which speaks to our depth.”
Amerson, who repeated as a TOC champion with an 8-0 major decision over Crater’s Kutter Christensen, showed humility after his match, promising not to gloat about being the only Tiger to take home gold.
“No, but it is exciting,” he said, smiling. “I think we’re all just looking forward to getting back in the room.”
Newberg’s final-round hiccups also give Russo something to discuss with the team this week as the Tigers prepare for the upcoming Pacific Conference district and OSAA state tournaments.
“We get a little checkup before we get into those last couple of weeks and got some things exposed,” he said. “And now, you go back to the room and work on those things. We put a bunch in those medal rounds, and that’s what it takes to win state tournaments. And while we’ve got a lot of guys that aren’t entirely pleased with their individual finish, we’ll take that as motivation going forward.”
Sweet Home senior Kyle Sieminski avenged losses to Roseburg senior Gage Singleton at the past two TOCs, finally winning his first title with a 10-6 decision in the 120 final. He earned Most Outstanding Wrestler honors.
“It felt really good,” said Sieminski, who will go for his fourth state title next month. “I got my butt kicked my sophomore year by him, and then last year, it was so close, so I realized that I was doing the right things.”
La Pine junior Tag DeLuca won the Gorriaran Award for posting the most falls in the least aggregate time, punctuating his run with a 67-second pin of Sprague’s Kenya Johnson in the third-place match at 190. DeLuca pinned five opponents in a combined 403 seconds.
Two schools left Liberty High School with multiple Reser’s champions — West Linn with junior Oscar Doces at 138 and senior Henry Dillingham at 157, and Mountain View with seniors Scout Santos (132) and Jackson Potts (175).
As a result, the wealth was spread among the 25 teams that took part, with wrestlers from 12 schools winning the gold eagle trophies and red jackets handed out to individual champions.
Among them were two that had never won a title — Bend, which had freshman Leif Larwin win at 165 in the school’s second appearance, and Silverton junior Brash Henderson at 285 in the Foxes’ inaugural invite to the state’s most prestigious tournament.
Hillsboro senior Preston Echevarria became the school’s first champion since 2016, and Canby junior Jackson Doman is the Cougars’ first TOC titlist in the past decade.
Doman (31-0) and Henderson (13-0) are the only two wrestlers to remain undefeated following the TOC, which brings together the top programs from Oregon’s five wrestling classifications.
For the first time in tournament history, every final went the distance, with four winners requiring overtime: Henderson, Doces, Dallas senior 126-pounder Jose Romero — who knocked off two-time Reser’s champion Isaac Hampton of Newberg in the semifinals — and Crater freshman Jeremiah Oliva at 113.
Roseburg sophomore Drew Dawson, a transfer from nearby Glide, won the 106 title, and La Grande sophomore Tommy Belding won at 144.
